Niger Delta Militants Protesting against non-registration and non-payment of their allowance reportedly blocked the Abaji-Gwagwalada end of the road to Abuja, Leaving thousands of commuters stranded on the busy highway.

The Militants who were prevented from entering Abuja by policemen vented their frustration by taking over the road and causing serious traffic gridlock that lasted for hours.

Only last week, some Militants in Cross River State, rough handled Alaibe at the "Peace Training" camp in Obubra near Calabar, over the same issues.

comments: Does this guy not have advisers?The country is not working young men and women have no Jobs.Workers not being paid poor infrastructure,No light,No good roads,No security and we want to spend 9.5Billion to celebrate!!Celebrate what I ask?Our failure?Every other country is finding ways to cut down on unnecessary spending Nigerian Government is looking for ways to spend Photo: GJ in oyo State .

Catch GJ on Faceboko and Tell him what you think

http://bit.ly/GJFACEBOOK

Following criticism of the federal government's plan to spend N16.4 billion on the celebrations of Nigeria's golden independent jubilee, President Goodluck Jonathan has slashed the anniversary budget to N9.5 billion.

The adjustments are included in the latest amended supplementary budget which the president presented to the national assembly for consideration and passage.

In a letter to the national assembly conveying his intentions, the president said listed the areas which the cuts affected and said it was a "slight amendment."
Contrary to widely circulated reports that the president, earlier, presented a budget of N10 billion for approval by the National Assembly for its Nigeria at 50 celebrations, the figures from the former supplementary budget shows that the actual figure that was budgeted for the event was N16.37 billion.

comments: Does this guy not have advisers?The country is not working young men and women have no Jobs.Workers not being paid poor infrastructure,No light,No good roads,No security and we want to spend 9.5Billion to celebrate!!Celebrate what I ask?Our failure?Every other country is finding ways to cut down on unnecessary spending Nigerian Government is looking for ways to spend Photo: GJ in oyo State .

Catch GJ on Faceboko and Tell him what you think

http://bit.ly/GJFACEBOOK

Following criticism of the federal government's plan to spend N16.4 billion on the celebrations of Nigeria's golden independent jubilee, President Goodluck Jonathan has slashed the anniversary budget to N9.5 billion.

The adjustments are included in the latest amended supplementary budget which the president presented to the national assembly for consideration and passage.

In a letter to the national assembly conveying his intentions, the president said listed the areas which the cuts affected and said it was a "slight amendment."
Contrary to widely circulated reports that the president, earlier, presented a budget of N10 billion for approval by the National Assembly for its Nigeria at 50 celebrations, the figures from the former supplementary budget shows that the actual figure that was budgeted for the event was N16.37 billion.

Nigeria asks for Akingbola's arrest, extradition

The letter, dated July 1, and signed by the Attorney General of the federation, Mohammed Adoke, was addressed to the British Home Secretary, the Home Office, and the United Kingdom Central Authority, London.

The request by the government was consequent upon a request from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for Mr. Akingbola to be extradited to face trial for 28 charges preferred against him for fraud-related offences at the bank.

List of offences

The charges cover allegations of financial misappropriation, money laundering, financial malpractices, corrupt practices, and other related offences pending against him at the Federal High Court (FHC), Lagos.

The Attorney General, who prayed the Home Secretary to grant the request in the interest of justice, said government's action was pursuant to the Extradition Act (Designation of Part 2 Territories) Order 2003 (SI2003 No.3334) of the United Kingdom, for the purpose of his being brought home to stand trial for the offences he is being charged.

The request was supported with an affidavit deposed to by Ibeakaku Nkechi Rita, a deputy superintendent of the EFCC, as well as a certification signed by Ahmed T. Almakura, senior state counsel of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

History

In the wake of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention in the nation's banking sector, which resulted in the sack of the chief executives of five banks last year, Mr. Akingbola, who was abroad when he was sacked along with others, decided to stay away from the country.

This led to his being declared wanted by the anti-graft agency. He was declared wanted in connection with alleged fraudulent abuse of credit process, insider trading, capital market manipulation, and money laundering running into billions of naira.

Though several requests were reportedly sent to various international security agencies around the world, including the INTERPOL to help facilitate Mr. Akingbola's arrest and extradition, these appear to have been to no avail.

Property sealed off

Early this year, the EFCC sealed off his Lagos home, located at 12, Ruxton Road in Ikoyi, in line with the order of the Federal High Court, Lagos, presided over by Justice Tijuana Abubakar, that his assets be seized and his bank accounts frozen to help recover depositors' fund, allegedly misappropriated under his stewardship in the bank.

The court also granted an order of Mareva Injunction restraining Mr. Akingbola, his wife, Anthonia Tolulope Akingbola, his children, relatives, solicitors, servants, associates, trustees, agents, privies and companies from removing, alienating, disposing of, or diminishing the value of assets whether held directly or indirectly, or for his benefit within the jurisdiction of the court up to the amount set out, pending his trial.

The arrest and extradition order, which was dispatched by DHL Courier Services for his service at his known abode at No. 26 Chester Terrace, London, England, NW 14 ND, also restrained him from giving directions for sale, transfer, alienation, disposal, dealing with stocks, or other forms of securities held or kept by the central securities clearing system in Nigeria, or any custodian, stock broker, registrar, held whether directly or indirectly by him.

Parents and guardians of students of Kenneth Dike Memorial Secondary School, Awka, Anambra State, yesterday stormed the premises of the Anambra government house to protest what they termed government's silence over a recent shooting incident in the school that left 13 students injured..

On June 21 this year, gunmen suspected to have been hired by a land speculator involved in a land dispute with the school, opened fire at students of the school, moments after the students had pulled down the walls of the encroaching building. The attack sent 13 students to the hospital with varying degree of injuries.

The attack came barely six days after an attempt to abduct the school principal was foiled when the students pursued the kidnappers and drew the attention of the police. One of the kidnappers was arrested by the police.

Since the shooting, the school had been unceremoniously vacated by both students and teachers, even with examinations close at hand.

Worried by this development, parents of the students decided to take their case to the state government.

The chairman of the Parents-Teachers-Association, Innocent Anyaso, told NEXT that they were unhappy with government's silence, which he described as unusual.

He said the students had earlier trooped to government house to see the governor but were told he had travelled, a development that he said necessitated the visit of the parents.

Later, while channelling their grievances to Chuks Iloegbunam, representative of the government, the protesters requested the government to, among other things, fence the school; provide adequate security; help in offsetting the bill of the hospitalised students, and make the police to mount a checkpoint there..

Peaceful protest

Mr. Iloegbunam commended the parents on their peaceful disposition, as well as the role their children played in foiling the kidnap attempt on the principal. He restated government's commitment to the issue of security, and cited the recent resolution of south east governors to clamp down on kidnappers in the region.

He also noted that as part of the state government's commitment to the safety of the citizenry, each of the communities in the state had recently been given a N500, 000 security vote.

He recalled that the government had also mandated town union leaders to take care of security in their domains or risk being removed.

Mr. Iloegbunam promised to channel their case to the state governor, Peter Obi, once he returned from his trip.

"It's like someone who cheats but doesn't think it's cheating if they don't get caught," Judge Marsha Revel saidin finding that Lohan had violated the terms of her probation forreckless driving and two DUI charges from 2007. Revel noted severalinstances over the last few years in which the actress lied about takingdrugs and drinking.

A teary Lohan addressed the court before being sentenced.. She said that "as far as I knew I was in compliancewith my programs."

"I wasn't trying to get special treatment," said the actress, whose credits include Mean Girls, FreakyFriday and Herbie Fully Loaded. "I have to provide formyself. I have to work. Having said that, I did everything to balance myjobs and showing up. I'm not taking this as a joke. It's my life. It'smy career. ... I take responsibility for my actions. I've tried to dothe best I can. It's been such a long haul, I don't want you to thinkthat I don't respect you."

After she's out of jail, Lohan must do 90 days in a rehab center. She'll surrender in two weeks.

Although 56-year-old suspect, Shuaib Atanda, is a contractor engaged by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba, to dispose unclaimed corpses of babies, police said his inability to give a satisfactory answer to what he was doing with some sacks stuffed with 66 dead babies, may soon land him in trouble.

"He showed documents to back his claims, but he could not give a satisfactory explanation why he had to travel all the way from Idi Aba to Agbowa to dispose the corpses." Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mba, said on Tuesday.

But Atanda told PUNCH METRO that he had been a contractor with the LUTH for two years.

"What I do is to evacuate abandoned dead babiesfrom the university. It was not different last Saturday as I was given 66 dead babies to evacuate and deposit at Atan cemetery in Yaba.

Forty of the dead babies were those unclaimed for the month of March, While 26, were for the month of April." he said.

Atanda alleged that after bribing some staff of the LUTH, he discovered that the amount left from the N185,000 the hospital paid him would not be enough to bury the corpse at Atan cemetery.

He said,"There was no money left for me to buy a space at Atan cemetery where we usually bury them. The cemetery would collect between N90,000 and N100,000 before one can get a space. But I have bribed nearly everybody in that department (Morbid and Anathomy) before I could get that contract.

"For instance, I gave N50,000 to O/C mortuary; I gave N40,000 to one Everest in that department, two workers in the account department also collected N10,000 each. That was the usual practice; I have been doing this job for a long time.

"So at the end of the day, I had to take a risk and decide to find a bush to bury the children because I also needed money to feed my family. The police caught me on the way," he said, denying that he went with the corpses to Agbowa for any other purpose.

When questioned why he had to go as Agbowa to bury the corpses, Atanda, who denied having ulterior motive for his action, simply said, "I am sorry."

But the head of department of Morbid and Anathomy, Prof. Kumbi Banjo, said the LUTH was already investigating Atanda's allegation. "It is true that he is our contractor to clear unclaimed baby corpses. We have such corpses on ground because many people were so devastated by their losses that they just abandoned the corpses. We have to evacuate such babies who had been there for a long time. But the university is looking into this problem, he said.

The 'O/C mortuary,' who is actually the principal head Assistant of Morbid and Anathomy, Mr. Abraham Ekhome, denied Atanda's allegation. "It is a mere fabrication. We use about four contractors and I have Never collected any bribe or gift from them," he said.

However, Mba said police preliminary investigation into the matter also led to the arrest of some workers in the department of Morbid and Anathomy of the teaching hospital.

He said police investigation was still continuing, adding "For Now, we are satisfied that Atanda is a bonafide contractor with LUTH and that he was charged with the duty of disposing abandoned dead babies. We are sure the suspect is neither a ritualist nor a murderer nor trafficker. Other contending issues like corruption and abuse of office will be investigated."

----By Sesan Olufowobi

A good friend of our in Mequon lost their 25 years old son (Arun Gopal Ratnam) in a fire at home June 4th. This what happened. He graduated with MBA from University of Wisconsin-Madison two weeks earlier and came home. Had a lunch with his dad at home and decided to bach to clean up his room at school.

The dad told him to wait and see his mother before he goes back for a few days decided to take a nap while waiting for his mom to come home from work. Neighbours called 911 when they saw black smoke coming out of the house. Their 25 years old son Arun died in the three old house. It took several days of investigation to find out the cause of the fire. it was discovered that the fire was caused by lap top in the bed.

When the lap top is on the bed, cooling fans does not get air to cool the computer and that is what caused the fire. He did not even wake up to get out of the bed, he died of carbon monxide (CO).

The reason am writing this to all of you is that, I have seen all of "us" using our lap top in bed. Lat us all decide to make it a practce not to do that.

RISK IS REAL.

Lat us make it a rule not to use lap top in bed or put computer on bed with blankets and pillows around. Please, Broadcast this message and you may save others.

For the sixth time, Zain Nigeria has got a new name. The mobile phone company that started trading as Econet in 2001 and the first to be licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) became Bharti Airtel Nigeria on Tuesday, following the sale of Zain Africa to Bharti Airtel India.

At a press conference in Lagos, the management staff of Bharti Airtel Group reaffirmed that the new management and brand are committed to doing business in Nigeria, its turbulent history notwithstanding.

NEXT reported in our February 28 edition, that Broad Communications, a major shareholder of Zain Nigeria, had accused the majority shareholders, Zain Group, Kuwait, of mismanagement, fraud, and capital flight to the tune of N16.6 billion. Broad further accused Zain Kuwait of not paying its shareholders dividends since the Kuwait group started managing the firm.

In June, Broad again filed a suit against the directors of Zain Nigeria over the five-year lease of the company's head office at Ikoyi for $27 million..

Oba Otudeko, the company chairman said on Tuesday, "You do not require any education on the history of our company through all the twists and turns over the years. One thing I must say, however, is that our resilience and the grace of God have left us stronger and more resolved to serve you better.

"Indeed we have come a long way and achieved a number of remarkable milestones, as reflected in numbers of firsts that we have recorded in the Nigerian telecom industry. On behalf of the board and management, I want to assure Nigerians that our best is yet to come."

Also speaking, Rajan Swaroop, the new chief executive officer said, "Let me also reaffirm our commitment as a business to continue to go the extra mile to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers. With Bharti Aritel, we can only do better. Bharti Aritel would build on the momentum of activities to ensure we provide quality services to all Nigerians, irrespective of their economic power and social status."

A new name all the time

The company started as Econet Wireless Nigeria (2001); Vodacom Nigeria (2004); and the same year to V-Mobile Nigeria; Celtel Nigeria (2006); to Zain Nigeria (2008) and now Bharti Airtel Nigeria.

According to Manjo Kohli, the Africa group chief executive officer of Bharti Airtel, the new brand name would coincide with the 50th Independence anniversary of Nigeria on October 1.

"We will invest $600 million in Bharti Airtel Nigeria in the next three years. Fifty per cent of that amount would come up in the first year. We have looked that the Nigerian telecom industry and have discovered three issues: quality of service, freedom to make calls and affordability of service which we would work on to provide quality service to consumers," added Mr Kohli.

Subscribers are, however, concerned about the quality of service following another name change. Deolu Ogunbanjo, the president of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) said via phone, "Somehow, I do not expect that the new change in name would affect them because of their subscriber's volume but may affect them if their quality of service becomes bad.

"Once they zero their mind on the quality of service and cheaper tariffs, then they would be able to survive the change. Considering the volume of subscribers Bharti Airtel has around the world and its history, it would be able to bring down Nigerian tariff."

Frank Okafor, a subscriber said, "I am not concerned about their change of name but about the quality of their service which I hope improves soon or they will lose subscribers."

Following the acquisition of Zain Africa in 15 countries, Bharti Airtel becomes the fifth largest mobile company in the world with over 180 million customers across its business units.